The Trials of a Contest Coordinator
by SRHtheHedgehog
Summary: What? Shinji's entering a contest? It seems that the next major contest also has a cash prize for the winner, and Shinji wants in on it. Can Hikari help this hard-core gym battler become a graceful coordinator? Ikarishipping
1. Chapter 1

"WHAT?! You mean you're going to enter a CONTEST?!" Hikari shrieked.

"Would you keep it down? Noisy girl…" Shinji murmured.

"But…why…why a contest?"

-------_Flashback_-------

"Okay guys, I think we should set up camp here."

Satoshi-tachi continued on their journey, stopping only for food and rest. This happened to be one of those times, and Hikari leapt at the chance to take a break.

"YES! PLEASE! My feet are KILLING me!" she moaned, plopping down on the ground in agony.

"Well, you just sit right there while I fix something for us to eat," Takeshi chuckled. He got out his usual pot and table and Hikari gladly rushed over to sit in one of the chairs positioned around it. Takeshi soon had the water boiling for one of his famous stews. Hikari could hardly wait.

They released and fed their pokemon, then sat back and watched them at play. Pikachu was playing a small game of peek-a-boo with Happini while Buneary admired Pikachu for his way with baby pokemon. All seemed to be right with the world.

"Hey, it's Shinji!"

Shinji? SHINJI?! Why did Satoshi ALWAYS have to ruin Hikari's perfectly good mood? She sullenly looked up to find what he proclaimed true as Shinji stood before them, scowling. He was probably unhappy with the idea that Satoshi had spotted him and was now pushing to have him join them.

"Come on, please Shinji? Why won't you join us for lunch?"

"Because, I don't like spending time with you losers! Now just leave me alone!" he snapped, trying to walk away. Before he turned around, he spied Hikari sitting on her chair, then paused and slowly walked over to her. "Hey, troublesome girl, I want to talk to you," me mumbled quietly.

"Hm? Me? Are you sure that you wouldn't rather talk to Satoshi?" she asked, surprised.

"Just get over here!" he growled. He grabbed her wrist and led her over the hill where they couldn't be seen. "Now, are you going to help me or not?" me muttered.

"Help you? Me? What could I possibly help you with? I'm a coordinator, not a gym battler!" Shinji scowled at the ground.

"That's just the thing. I need…." He got quiet. He murmured something even quieter, barely audible.

"What was that? I'm sorry, Shinji, but I couldn't hear you!" Hikari said loudly, trying to emphasize his almost silent words.

"I asked you if you would teach me how to compete in contests!" he bellowed. Contests?

-------_Present time_-------

"But…why…why a contest?"

"Tsk. Don't you know anything? The prize for the contest is 3 million Pokeyen, stupid girl."

"WHAT?! THREE MILLION?!" she shrieked.

"That's right. Now are you going to help me or not?" he snapped.

"Wow…three million…I think I might enter as well in that case…oh! I know! We can train together!" she said excitedly.

Shinji groaned. This was going to be a long week.

"Okay, all I have to do is tell Satoshi and Takeshi where I'll be!" Hikari started back towards Satoshi-tachi's rest area.

"Hey! Wait! What exactly are you planning on telling them?!"

"I'm going to tell them I'm traveling with you for a while. If you're that bothered by them knowing you're going to be in a contest, then I'll just tell them I'm traveling alone, chicken!" she shouted back.

Shinji would have normally retaliated, but she was too far off to hear him. On the other hand, that was exactly what he wanted, so he wasn't really bothered by it any more.

Hikari soon came back with her small backpack slung over her slim shoulder. "Okay! I'm ready to go!"

"Go? Go where?" Shinji smirked. "We can train right here." He suddenly threw a Pokeball into the air, and with a flash of light, a humungous island-like turtle landed hard on the soft grass.

"You're using Torterra?" Hikari asked, astonished.

"Yeah. Why? Is there a problem with it?" he scowled.

"Well, no, but…I don't know. I just figured that you would use something a little…prettier?" Hikari smiled awkwardly.

"…Prettier?"

"Yeah, like Torterra is kind of big and slow, and it makes a lot of noise when it walks…"

"Okay, I get the idea. The pokemon matters too." Shinji angrily brought out his Pokeball to return his Torterra.

"Well, I really wouldn't know, I suppose. It's not my pokemon, so I don't know the beauty it holds within." Hikari smiled softly. Shinji stared at her, expressionless. "What I mean is, that pokemon would probably be great for the actual show part, while you might choose something a little swifter for the appeal matches!"

Shinji nodded in understanding. He brought out another Pokeball and released his Electabuzz. "That seem right?"

"Yeah! That's perfect for appeals!" Hikari clapped. "Now that you have your pokemon picked out, let's start with the actual training!"

-----------------------------------------

If you're going off of normal yen, then the approximate (VERY approximate) amount in dollars would be about $30,000.


	2. Chapter 2

NOTE: I know that pokemon can only have four moves at a time in the game, but I figured it might be different in the anime version. If not, then just pretend 8D

------------------------------------

"No no no! Shinji, you have to try and make your pokemon seem graceful and majestic! Try to jazz up your moves a little bit!"

"…Did you just ask me to 'jazz up my moves'?"

"Well…you know what I mean!"

Shinji and Hikari had been training for the past hour or so, and this gym battler just didn't seem to get the idea.

"Earthquake!" Torterra generated a gigantic earthquake, causing deep crevices to appear in the soft earth around him.

"Erm…I think that's a little too…forceful," Hikari said, flopping to the ground. "Maybe try a less powerful attack? Or even tone it down a bit?"

Shinji scowled. "Okay…erm, Torterra! Use earthquake again! But this time, try it a little…softer?" The large pokemon looked at its trainer as if it had grown an extra head. "Would you just trust me already?!"

Torterra complied, creating a rumble and large vibration in the ground, but nothing like the first attack had been.

"Okay, good! I think we've finally got it so that you and your pokemon know how to use attacks without the excessive force!" Shinji slumped. You mean this whole time they had only been practicing how to use pokemon without using so much power…?

"Now, Shinji, the trick is that you have to use combinations of moves to create something pleasing to the eye. Remember, you're going for looks, not power!"

Shinji thought for a minute. He had never had to use his pokemon's moves to please the eye before. His goal had always been to defeat the other pokemon.

Finally, he looked up, indicating that he had thought of something.

"Substitute!"

Torterra created a substitute of itself. They towered above Hikari, causing her to shake a little, having never seen a pokemon this large before her, let alone two.

"Use light screen on the substitute!" A bright light screen attack appeared around the substitute pokemon. "Now, the real one! Leaf storm!"

The original used a huge leaf storm attack around the fake. The leaves began to crash into the substitute's bubble of light, creating an almost sparkly effect, and the light screen faded away, the effect having worn off.

"Perfect. Sunny day!"

The sun began to glow brighter, reflecting off of all the shiny material left behind from the leaf storm and light screen, shrouding the two torterras in a shining mist. Shinji turned to Hikari. "So, that 'pretty' enough for you?"

"Oh, Shinji, that was wonderful! It's really beautiful!" Hikari squealed excitedly.

Shinji smirked. "Alright, so now what?"

"Okay, so now that you've learned how to create a nice presentation, now you have to learn how to gracefully battle your pokemon."

"A 'graceful' battle, now?"

"Yes! Here, I'll show you!" Hikari released her Piplup. "Send out your other pokemon!"

Shinji quickly threw Electabuzz's Pokeball. "So what, we just battle, right?"

"No!! It's so much more than that!" Hikari said, bubbly. "You have to execute your every move very delicately and beautifully, using everything to your advantage!"

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with. Electabuzz! Use thunderbolt!"

Electabuzz sent a huge bolt flying at the tiny penguin trembling in fear. "Piplup! Dodge it!" Piplup jumped into the air, narrowly avoiding the thunderbolt attack. "Now use bubble beam!" Piplup did a small flip in the air towards Electabuzz before shooting forth many small bubbles out of its mouth.

Shinji smirked. "Thunderbolt again!" Electabuzz once again sent a lightning bolt through the air, right through the bubble beam, causing each one to pop, creating another sparkle effect, and then hitting Piplup in mid-air. Piplup fell to the ground, defeated.

Hikari clapped her hands. "That was great!! I think that you're finally getting the hang of this, Shinji! You did great too, Piplup!" Hikari returned the KO'ed pokemon.

"So, what's the big deal, then? I just make some sparkly move and KO the other pokemon. Simple."

Hikari frowned. "Well, what if the other pokemon is too strong and you can't beat it?"

Shinji glared at her. "Are you saying that I'm not strong enough to beat some frilly coordinators?"

"Are you saying that coordinators are all 'frilly' weaklings?" Hikari marched right up to Shinji, sparks flying between their eyes.

"So what if I am?"

It took all Hikari had to keep from pounding the snot out of this arrogant boy.

"…I'm not talking to you…anymore…" she said, eye twitching. She turned to walk away, but Shinji wouldn't have it end there. Where was the fun in that?

"So, no denial, eh? Does that mean that you can't defend against my argument because you know it's true?" he smirked.

That was it. That was the very last straw. Hikari's rope was cut short. She turned around angrily and leapt at Shinji. She started biting and clawing, ripping and tearing; trying anything that she could to hurt him as much as possible. However, she didn't pay attention to the world around her. There was only one thing on her mind: KILL SHINJI.

In their struggle, Shinji and Hikari didn't realize that they were slowly rolling away. Suddenly, they found themselves tumbling down a steep hill. Hikari shrieked as they spun down the grassy slope, and Shinji gripped onto her wrists tightly, pulling her closer so that they would roll together, thereby reducing any injury possible while getting tangled in each other separately. Electabuzz ran down the hill, close behind them, unsure of what to do. They soon reached the bottom and slowed to a stop.

Hikari lied there like that, afraid to open her clenched eyes.

"Hey, troublesome girl, we've stopped. You can get up now."

Hikari slowly loosened her eyelids and cracked them open to find that she was lying on something warm and soft…and blue.

Her head snapped up and her eyes beheld Shinji. She was lying on top of him in his arms. Her head had been resting on his chest, explaining the blue that she saw. "Ah! I'm sorry!" she squealed, blushing. She leapt up, face beet red. Shinji stood up as well, scowling.

"See what you get me into? Stupid girl."

Hikari almost became enraged once again, but a different reason came to mind instead.

"Shinji…do you provoke me on purpose?" she asked thoughtfully.

"What…? What are you talking about?"

"I mean, it's almost like you wanted to fight with me back there…and now you're trying to again!"

Shinji looked at her, surprised. He never would have guessed that she was intelligent enough to come to that conclusion, even for something as simple as that.

Rather than retaliate, he smirked lightly and sat down in the grass, returning his Electabuzz. He laid back closed his eyes, trying to forget about the stupid girl. However…

"Shinji, what are you doing?" Shinji cracked open one eye and saw Hikari leaning over him curiously.

"Trying to ignore you," he snapped, closing his eyes once again. He heard a small fwump next to him and turned his head to find that she had lied down next to him. A little too close to him, in his opinion. "Scoot over; I don't want you lying that close to me."

Hikari grinned. "Just ignore me." And so that's what he did. He turned his head skyward again and looked at the clouds. They almost had a cozy atmosphere between them at that time. That is, until Hikari spoke up again…

"Shinji, there's something that I've been wondering."

"Hn?" he grunted. This girl would never give him a moment's rest, would she?

"Just…what do you need that money for so badly that you're willing to enter a contest?" Crap; she was quicker than he thought. _Think quick, Shinji…_

"N-none of your business." _Stupid, that was the best that you could come up with?_

"Hmmm…" Hikari squinted her eyes, wondering whether it was worth it or not to get into another fight with him. She decided it wasn't, and stayed quiet.


	3. Chapter 3

"Shinji…" Hikari mumbled as she flipped over in her sleep.

"What? Stupid girl, what are you talking about? Would you wake up already?"

Hikari slowly blinked, finally waking up. Shinji was looming over her, face inches away from hers. Hikari's eyes widened and her face grew slightly pinker. "What are you doing?" she asked nervously.

"I was trying to wake you up. I started to doubt whether you were still breathing or not, so I leaned down to check." He smirked. "You sleep like a rock."

"HEY! I do not!" she shouted, shoving Shinji off. "So…why were you trying to wake me up, anyway?" she asked curiously as she sat up.

"Because those idiots will be coming this way soon. This was the direction that they were heading in, so they'll spot us when they get moving," he stated directly.

"Ah, I know what this is." Hikari grinned evilly. "You're afraid that Satoshi and Takeshi are going to find out that you're entering a contest! AND that you had to ask me for help!" Hikari fell back onto the ground, laughing. "_Oh my, Shinji is entering a contest? Why, who ever knew that he was really a 'frilly' coordinator deep down?_"she cried, using her best fake voice that she could muster.

"Would…would you shut up already?!" Shinji snarled, enraged. Fear showed weakness, so if Shinji was to be afraid of something like that, then that would mean he was weak…right?

He turned around quickly, in all honesty ready to leave the girl behind. Hikari grinned wider. She was glad that she had finally found an argument in which she came out on top of.

However, her glee ended abruptly as Shinji whirled back around, smirking mischievously.

"And what about you?" he sneered. "What would you do if they found out that you were traveling with me? _Gasp! Hikari is living with a boy? What a who-"_

Shinji soon found himself on the ground being attacked by the short-tempered girl, and he found himself experiencing an eerie feeling of déjà vu.

Hikari, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less about the insult at that moment. What really made her angry was the fact that Shinji had stolen her one power over him; embarrassment. He had now found a way to counter her teases, and Hikari wished that she was smart enough to come up with something better. Just as she went to hit him again, she heard voices off in the distance.

How would this look to Takeshi and Satoshi? She had told them that she would be traveling alone for the time being, and here she was with Shinji. How would she explain something like that? And, she was positive that Takeshi would try to break them up, ruining her chance for revenge. She looked back down at Shinji. She was sitting with her legs wrapped around his waist to try and keep him immobile, while Shinji had her wrist tightly clenched in his hand to prevent any further injury from that hand.

Hikari quickly jerked her hand out of his hold, but he held strong. "Come on, Shinji! We have to go! They're coming!" she whispered hastily.

"Oh? But I was sure that you couldn't have cared less about something like that!" he sneered.

"Look, I was wrong, okay? I'm sorry! Let's just go!" Hikari went to stand up, but Shinji grabbed hold of her free hand with his, pulling her back down.

"Hm…how would this look if they were to come over the ridge there and find their friend had lied to them?" he smirked. "AND that she was traveling with a boy?"

"Shinji, we already went over this; please, let go!" she whined.

"What was that you were dreaming about before?" he said suddenly.

"Eh? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question!" he snapped. "Why were you saying my name in your sleep?"

W…what? Hikari…had she really said his name in her sleep? She thought for a moment, and realized that she couldn't even remember what she had been dreaming about.

"Shinji, I honestly can't remember! I…I must have said something else; why would I say your name?" she said hurriedly.

Shinji slowly released her hands, allowing her to stand up. She quickly grabbed her backpack and tossed Shinji's in his direction. He pushed himself up and caught it, slipping it over his head and shoulder.

"Let's go," he murmured, grabbing her hand once again, leading her around to the other side of the hill where Satoshi and Takeshi wouldn't notice them.

Once a suitable area was reached, Shinji let go of her hand and flopped back down on the ground, saying nothing.

"Shinji? What's eating you?" Hikari questioned, slowly sitting down next to him. He grunted in response and flipped over, facing the opposite direction.

"Hello? Shinji, are you mad at me or something?"

"No. Why would I be mad at you?" he growled.

"Well…it's just that…wait, are you mad because I wasn't dreaming about you or something?" she grinned wickedly.

Shinji snapped up to face her again. "Why the heck would I be mad about something stupid like that?" he snapped.

"Well, that's the only explanation…"

"Well, that's not it."

"Then what is it?"

"Look, would you just leave me alone already?"

"Geez, cranky," Hikari huffed. She lied back once again. She tried to get some sleep, seeing as how the sun had already set, but one question was looming at the back of her mind…

"Shinji, you still haven't told me why you need that money so badly."

Shinji was silent. That was probably because he had never intended to tell her what he planned to do with the money. What am I talking about? He still didn't intend to tell her.

"I already told you; it's none of your business."

"But that's not a real answer! Come on, pleeease?" Hikari gave Shinji her best puppy dog pout, widening her eyes and sticking her lip out as far as it could possibly go without defying basic human structure laws.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Obviously it's because I don't want nosy girls to find out."

Hikari huffed again. "Fine, be that way." She flipped over, copying Shinji and tried to get to sleep. She would have put up her tent, but she didn't feel the need to go through the hassle for some reason. Sleeping out in the cool summer night air in the grass seemed…cozy, at that moment. Yes, sleeping in the open air in the soft grass, right next to Shinji…

What? No way, who cares about that?! Scratch that last part. Hikari blushed at the thought of being excited to be close to Shinji, and decided to try and stop thinking about it. She couldn't be in love with that jerkface, could she…?


	4. Chapter 4

Hikari faced upwards, looking at the stars. She had not been able to fall asleep this whole time. It had been hours, but the thought still bugged her. Could she really be in love with Shinji? She had never found his attitude all that appealing, nor had she ever found him very attractive, but for some reason he made her feel like there were one hundred butterfree fluttering around in her stomach.

She turned on her side and saw Shinji lying there, sleeping. She wondered if he really was sleeping, or if he was kept awake by some dark secret like she was. Curiosity took over, and she sat up and crawled to where he was lying in the grass. Judging from his breathing rate and the calm (sort of; he was still scowling) expression, she decided that he was indeed asleep.

She looked down at his sleeping figure. He seemed so…harmless. Poor guy…he even had a scowl on while he was asleep.

And yet…he was almost…cute. His hair lay smoothly over his dark face; for some reason it never became tousled or messy. He had what Hikari always liked to call: "perfect hair."

She softly touched his cheek with her finger. She had never known that his skin was so soft. She leaned in closer; she could hear his breathing and feel his hot breath on her face. She almost felt…tingly, being this close to him.

She leaned her head down further, softly laying it down on his chest. She could hear his heart beating. He had never seemed so human to her before. She had always figured that he didn't have a heart…or something.

She touched his hand; unlike his face, it was coarse and rough. She looked at their hands; hers was very small in comparison, and much paler.

She looked back at his face once again. Something about it seemed alluring to her. She softly brushed a purple lock of hair off of his eyes, to which he moved slightly. However, his face relaxed once again, and he went back to being motionless, the only sound emanating from him being his quiet breathing.

"Oh, Shinji," she whispered. "What's caused you so much anguish to make you scowl even in your sleep?" She leaned in close to his face again, trying to study his features and see if it was merely a trick of the shadows in the dark. She moved in so close to his face that, without realizing it, their noses touched, causing Hikari to jump back slightly.

_Oh wow…we almost…if I was any closer to him, we would have…_ She blushed at the idea. What if she had kissed Shinji? What would it be like? …What if he woke up in the middle? All these thoughts came to Hikari's mind as she looked down at Shinji again. But…

He was just so cute, lying there innocently, sleeping like a baby.

_Okay, just one little kiss._

_Wait, no! You can't do that! That would be taking advantage of him! And…come on, it's Shinji we're talking about!_

_Oh, but…I just want to see what it's like…it won't hurt anything._

_But that's still taking advantage of him! And…why would you want to kiss Shinji anyway?_

Hikari blushed and leaned in, deciding that one little peck wouldn't do either of them any harm. It was just an innocent little kiss…right?

Their noses touched softly once again, causing Hikari's heart to race. She slowly leaned in, closer…and closer…and closer…

Suddenly, Hikari felt Shinji stir under her nose. His breathing quickened and became less deep. He was waking up.

Hikari leapt up, and then fell back down next to him, deciding it was best to pretend that she was still sleeping.

She heard some rustling behind her; he was getting up. The rustling came closer; it had crept up right behind her. Then it stopped altogether. She once again could feel Shinji's hot breath on her face, sending her heart racing.

"What were you doing, exactly?" she heard him say softly behind her. Cripes

"Erm…nothing. I was…sleeping?" A sad attempt at an excuse. He would never buy it.

"Then why was your face so close to mine when I woke up?" She could almost feel his smirk. Crap. His eyes must have opened without Hikari knowing. It was pretty dark at that time.

"I already told you, n-nothing! I must…I must have done that in my sleep!" _Great excuse, Hikari. 'Oh yeah, I was just sleep-kissing!'_

Shinji chuckled. "If you wanted to kiss me so badly, then why didn't you just say so?"

Hikari flushed. "Y-you're not serious! I wouldn't want to kiss you!" Shinji chuckled once more, happy with a flustered Hikari at his side. He turned back around to his usual spot and tried to get some more sleep.

Hikari stayed down, heart still racing as it had been for the past few minutes. At this rate, she was bound to have a heart attack…or something.

She started thinking about her situation with Shinji. Did she really have a crush on him? Was it love? She still didn't know exactly, but she was positive that her 15-year-old heart was feeling something.

After Hikari started to accept that she had some feelings for Shinji, her mind calmed. She fell asleep, a smile on her face from daydreams of being with Shinji.


	5. Chapter 5

"Shinji? Where did you go? Shinji!" Hikari looked around, but she couldn't spot him anywhere. Strange, he had just been there a moment ago. Or, that's what Hikari thought, anyway. She had woken up to find that Shinji's spot in the grass was empty, and she was now worried that he had left her behind to train by himself.

"SHINJI!"

"Ack, can't you keep it down? Noisy girl!" Hikari whirled around and, to her pleasure, found Shinji strolling back over to her. "If I would have known that you were going to panic like that, I would have left a note or something," he smirked.

"Where did you go, anyway?"

"There's a river down that way." He pointed. "I decided that I'd rather not reek and went to go bathe."

"Oh, right." Hikari blushed. She had just realized that Shinji was shirtless, and was now, without realizing it, staring.

Shinji smirked. "Like what you see?"

Hikari's eyes leapt back to his face. "Wait, no! I-I wasn't…it's not what it looks like!"

He chuckled. "You were staring at me like candy."

"NO WAY! That…that's just gross!" Hikari huffed, grabbing her bag and walking towards the river. "Now I'm going to go take a bath, and you better not peek!"

"Why would I want to peep at you? It's not like you have anything to hide anyways," he smirked challengingly. Hikari chose to ignore his snide remark and continued on her way to the river.

She eventually reached the shore's edge and undressed, wading into the cold water. But, it wasn't like she had any other choice, right? She also went to release some of her water pokemon, thinking it wise to allow them to go swimming. She released Piplup and Buizel and they happily played in the water while Hikari finished her bath.

She dried off and put on her clothes, then sat down near the edge of the water, watching her pokemon relax. It was very peaceful there, by the river. Hikari soon found herself daydreaming once again. About what, you may ask? Why, about her new found love, of course!

She found herself thinking more and more of Shinji as time went on, but she was still dumbfounded that she could ever fall in love with someone so rude and arrogant as he.

"Are you going to sit there all day, or are you going to hurry up so we can get moving?"

Hikari jumped about ten feet in the air. She could swear that she had just heard Shinji's voice! It must have been in her imagination.

"Hello? Are you ignoring me now, or are _you_ going deaf from all of your yelling as well?" Hikari whipped around and came face to face with the boy she had just been dreaming of, Shinji. Unluckily for her, he had leaned down close to her, thinking that she couldn't hear him, and when Hikari whirled around…

Well, let's just say she got that kiss she wanted.

Hikari, panicked, ran backwards as fast as her legs could carry her, not realizing how close to the river she really was. She ended up falling into the water back first. She stood back up in the shallow water, drenched to the bone.

Shinji smirked. "Didn't know that a kiss from me was so exciting."

"WHAT?! You did that on PURPOSE?!"

"Well, no, but it was still entertaining."

"AGH! That was my first kiss!" However angry Hikari sounded on the outside, it was something more like this on the inside:

Oh my gosh! My first kiss! It was with Shinji! Oh wow, I never thought it would end up like this!

It took all Hikari had to not squeal and go to kiss him again. She played her part as the loud, angry girl to try and avert any suspicion. Shinji merely chuckled at the whole event, causing Hikari to grow nervous. Why wasn't he angry? He knew that she had tried to kiss him once, and now that she had (by accident, mind you), he wasn't affected nearly at all! In fact, he almost seemed to find amusement in the entire thing!

What did this mean? Did he suspect that she liked him? Was he just playing along? Would he try to kiss her back or something to mess with her? Or…maybe…just maybe…

Did Shinji like her back?

Hikari shook her head, spraying water in all directions. No way, he would never like her. It had to be something else.

Hikari stepped out of the river for the second time, returning her two pokemon. She dried off her hair and went to get out a spare set of clothes.

Oh…this was her only clean pair. If she were to wash the other clothes, she would still have to wait for them to dry.

Shinji noticed Hikari sulking. "What's the matter now? Troublesome girl."

"Well, I don't have any dry clothes to wear…"

"So what's the big deal? Just go around with wet clothes for a few hours." He smirked at her reaction. "Just kidding. Just borrow some of mine if you're that worried about it."

Really? She would wear Shinji's clothes? She nodded, hoping that her blush wasn't too obvious. He had taken his backpack with him in hopes that she would be ready to leave when he got there, so he swung it off and took out a pair of pants and white shirt.

Shinji walked off into the trees surrounding the river to allow Hikari to change in peace. She picked up the shirt and held it up to her nose. It smelled like Shinji. It had almost a spicy aroma to it. She wondered if he wore some kind of cologne.

She changed into the spare clothes and washed the others, finding the river convenient. She hung them all to dry as Shinji stood by the trees, sulking that he was so behind schedule.

Hikari hummed a happy tune, glad to be near the one she loved. But unfortunately, a disturbing thought soon occurred to her.

She only had 6 days left with Shinji before the contest.


	6. Chapter 6

Well, the days came and went. Nothing really notable happened; it was merely six long days of training. They were slowly inching their way closer to the town in which the contest was being held. However, Hikari had mixed feelings about it.

She was excited to get to be in such a major contest, but she also dreaded the time in which she and Shinji's time together would be over. Once the contest was over and done with, Hikari and Shinji would have no more reason to be traveling together. Hikari would have to go back to her friends, Satoshi and Takeshi.

Nonetheless, Hikari decided it was best not to think about that. She decided to think only happy thoughts. Her mind drifted to thoughts of herself in the contest. She could just see it.

There she stood in her usual contest dress, hair done up nicely. It was almost time for her to go on. They call her name and she coolly walks out on stage.

"Piplup, spotlight!" She tosses a Pokeball into the air, and her Piplup emerges from the sea of bubbles. They perform some beautiful combinations and get terrific scores from all the judges.

She walks backstage to find Shinji waiting for her. He compliments her on her combinations and her dress. He kisses her softly, stroking her cheek…

Ack!! How did that get in there? Hikari flushed. She looked over at Shinji. He was staring straight ahead, no emotion whatsoever. She longed to know what went through that purple head of his, but she was too nervous to ever get up the gumption to actually ask. She wondered if he felt the same way about their soon parting, but brushed it aside, thinking he wouldn't care in the least.

They trudged on in silence, neither quite knowing what to say. Hikari had already told him everything there was to know about various combinations, pokemon care, and anything else that she could think of that had to do with coordination.

Thus, Hikari still tried to strike up some kind of conversation.

"Erm, Shinji?"

"Hn?" he grunted.

"Just…we'll have to part soon. A-after the contest, I mean."

"Yeah. I suppose so. So what?"

"Ah, nothing, I guess." They continued in their awkward silence, Hikari not sure what she could possibly have to talk about that would be of any interest or use to Shinji.

Their journey soon came to an end, as they had finally reached the city.

"Oh! Shinji! Let's go to that shop over there!!" Hikari tried to run to the tiny shop that she spoke of, but was held back by Shinji.

"Stupid girl, don't we have to register or something?"

"Oh! That's right! I almost forgot!" Shinji sighed. And this girl expected to win the contest?

They strolled over to the registration area and signed themselves up. Shinji received his seals and Pokeball cover, and they went to a grassy area. Great! Hikari had forgotten to explain the seals! Perfect time for conversation!!

"Okay, do you know what these seals are for, Shinji?" Hikari said, trying (and failing) to conceal her excitement.

"Yes, of course I do." He looked up and saw Hikari's let down expression.

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

Shinji sighed. "But, I don't know…erm…what does each one do?" he said reluctantly.

Hikari's face lit up once more. "Oh! Well, you see, this one…" Hikari proceeded to explain each sticker and what effect they would have on the entrance of the pokemon. She even demonstrated with her own Piplup and the bubble seal.

Hikari was relieved that they had found something to relieve their silences. While she did love Shinji, she was just fine with being near him. Talking to him like this was just enough for her.

They each boarded at the nearest Pokemon Center for the night; the contest wouldn't be until the next day. Once they had dropped their stuff in their room (they had to stay together because of the lack of space from the people needing room and board for the contest), Shinji turned around and went to leave the room once again.

"Shinji? Where are you going?"

"You said that people need to dress nicely for contests, right? I'm going to go get something so that I don't look like crap."

"Oh. Um, okay." Hikari felt silly for asking such a question. Why would Shinji have something nice to wear with him? You didn't need to dress nicely for gym battles.

Shinji shut the door and Hikari plopped down on the bed. _This is my last night with Shinji, _she thought. She had never expected their parting to be such a let down, but who knows when she would see him again? She went into the bathroom to take a hot soak and try to sort out what she was going to do.

When she decided to get out of the tub, she dried off quickly and threw on a pair of pajamas, then exited the bathroom. She came out to find that Shinji was back already, and in his hand was…

He quickly stuffed it into his bag before Hikari had a chance to see what it was. She thought it looked like…some kind of magazine. Hikari, however, brushed it aside as unimportant.

"So! Shinji! You're back!" she said cheerfully. "Did you get those nice clothes?"

"Hn? Yeah," he said quickly.

"May I see them?"

"No."

"Eh? But why not?"

"Because I don't want to have to look at them any more than I have to." Hikari giggled. Shinji never did seem the type to like dressy clothes.

"Well, I'm going to get some sleep. Goodnight, Shinji!" Hikari climbed into her bed, and Shinji did the same in the one opposite the room. Hikari reached over and turned off her light sadly. Tomorrow was her last day with him. The day of the contest.


	7. Chapter 7

"CRAP! I'm gonna be late!!" Hikari burst out the Pokemon Center doors, putting even Shinji's speed to shame by leaving him in the dust.

"Hey! Stupid girl! You forgot your bag!" Shinji yelled as he followed close behind, waving the said object above his head.

Hikari had slept in too late that morning, Shinji having taken almost an hour (most of that having given up on her) to wake up the heavily sleeping girl. When she finally had come around, once she saw the clock, she flew like the wind in throwing on some day clothes and running out the door…of course forgetting her bag (including dress, hair products, etc.).

The two sprinted down the streets of the large city, trying to make it on time. Hikari was wearing something she had thrown on in about five minutes, as was Shinji. However, Shinji had been planning on dressing when they arrived (close to five minutes before he went on, to be precise) anyway.

They eventually reached the entrance to the large building, and Hikari couldn't believe her eyes.

Before her stood _hundreds_ of coordinators. Each one was primping and polishing his pokemon (A/N: 'his' being in general).

"This…this is a joke, right? These guys are only the audience…right?" Hikari said warily.

"No, stupid. Didn't you see your application number when you registered?" Shinji growled.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't think that meant there were that many coordinators!" Hikari stared on in awe at the huge crowd of people crowding into dressing rooms or preparing. This really was a big contest.

No wonder they were willing to give away so much money for a prize if they were expecting this many people to show up.

Well, nevertheless, Hikari went to the women's dressing room to change, and Shinji did the same in the men's.

When Hikari walked in, she spotted someone she recognized: Nozomi. She was on the other side of the room talking to a girl Hikari had never seen before. She had brown, shoulder length hair in the front, and the rest in the back was pulled up into her bandanna. Nozomi took off the bandana; Hikari was sure that the girl had asked her to help her with her hair.

Hikari got into a stall back near the corner (after waiting in line, of course) and changed into her usual dress. She took the dress out of her bag (which Shinji had given her before they parted), and looked at it almost sadly. She kind of wished that she had something nicer to wear; just something special to wear to the one contest Shinji would be at. But, this dress was what was available, and so she put it on nevertheless.

She came out of the stall and walked over to where she had last seen Nozomi. As Hikari expected, Nozomi was doing the brunette's hair.

"Hey! Nozomi!" Hikari said excitedly as she rushed over to meet her friend.

"Ah, hey! Hikari! Haven't seen you in forever!" Nozomi said warmly.

"Oh, hello! I'm Hikari, what's your name?" Hikari smiled brightly at the unknown girl.

"Hi there, Hikari! The name's Haruka. Nice to meet you," The girl named Haruka smiled back.

Nozomi went back to pulling the girl's hair up into a small bun. "So, how have you been, Hikari?"

Hikari sat down next to Haruka and proceeded to tell her story for the past week to Nozomi in depth as she fixed her own hair. Haruka smiled brightly and listened as well, always glad to have a new friend.

"Wow, sounds like this Shinji guy is a real jerk, huh?" Nozomi said.

"Yeah, why did you agree to help him?" Haruka asked curiously.

"Well…" Hikari looked into space wistfully. "He's really not all that bad…I mean, he can be really sweet when he wants to be."

"Oooo, sounds like someone's in love!" Nozomi said teasingly. "Isn't that right, Haruka?"

Haruka giggled. "Sure sounds that way to me!"

Hikari flushed deep red. "Hey you guys, knock it off! It's not funny!"

"Oh, but it is!" Nozomi laughed. The three friends' laughter was suddenly interrupted by a long, loud beep. Everyone looked up to the monitor to see that the stage and hostess were displayed upon the screen.

"_Okay, everyone! The contest will begin shortly! May I remind you that this contest is not sponsored by the Grand Festival, and therefore you will not earn any ribbons by winning this contest. It's just for the fun of it, so everybody get out there and have a good time!"_

The crowd on the screen roared. _"Okay then, our first contestant is Kaoru with his beautiful Pidgeot!"_ A boy trudged confidently onstage, releasing said Pidgeot with style. He performed some decent combinations, but Hikari was not impressed overall.

_Shinji's combinations were much better_, she thought. She looked back over to her friends to find that Haruka had stood up, hair nicely done. Hikari quickly tried stuffing some bobby pins back near her ponytail, but couldn't seem to find quite the spot she was searching for. She felt someone snatch the bobby pins from her fingers and put them in her hair for her.

"If you were having so much trouble, why didn't you just ask me for help?" Nozomi chuckled.

Hikari smiled. This contest would be just fine as long as her friends were there to support her. She took out the registration card from her back to check her number. Their registration number determined what order the contestants would go in.

#532. So she had a long wait. She looked at the flyer she had picked up at registration and something caught her eye.

**REMEMBER! THERE ARE THREE APPEAL ROUNDS IN THIS CONTEST. THE FIRST IS A SURPRISE STYLE (MEANT FOR TESTING ABILITY TO THINK ON YOUR FEET), THE SECOND BEING NORMAL, AND THE THIRD BEING A MATCH FOR FIRST PLACE BETWEEN THE FINAL TWO CONTESTANTS. PLEASE ENJOY YOUR CONTEST!**

Surprise style? What could they possibly mean by that? Hikari decided that it wasn't worth getting worked up over if she wouldn't be able to find out until later anyway, so she disregarded this and stood up, deciding to see who else was at this contest.

"Hey! Where are you going, Hikari? Can I come?" Haruka said excitedly. "I need to get out of this room; there's too much hair and glitter spray everywhere."

"Sure!" Haruka and Hikari walked out of the dressing room to find that the hallway was much less crowded. The monitors in the dressing rooms were much larger than that in the lobby, so she assumed that everyone was in their dressing rooms watching those. There were, however, a few people roaming the halls. Obviously there were still SOME sane people in this world.

Haruka must have known one of them because he came over to greet her. Her face instantly grew bright red.

The boy had green hair (which he found an interest in flicking frequently) and green eyes to match. He whipped out a rose, giving it to Haruka with only one simple phrase:

"It's for beautifly." He smirked lightly before walking away. Haruka stood shakily, still blushing brightly.

"And who was that?" Hikari said slyly.

"U-um, that was just Sh-Shuu. He's…kind of like my rival, I guess."

Hikari giggled. "Looked like a little more than a rivalry to me."

Haruka laughed nervously. "Well, looks like we have something in common."

Hikari looked back at the screen in front of them. "They're already at #15."

"Oh no!" Haruka wailed. "I'm #17! I've gotta get out there!" Haruka ran towards the stage. "I'll see you later, Hikari!" she yelled back.

"Yeah, see you." Hikari was now left alone. "Well…only…517 more to go…" she mumbled.


	8. Chapter 8

"Shinji

Slight one-sided Penguinshipping in this one. Ah, forgot to put the warning on the last one about the slight Contestshipping. (fixes)

Hikari sat down on a bench near the screen, deciding to watch quietly. It was lonely there, sitting by herself, but Nozomi had gone to prepare for her match, and Haruka had to go and perform herself. Hikari sighed.

"Pikari? That you?" Hikari whirled around to find her childhood friend, Kengo, smiling down at her.

"Kengo! What are you doing here?" Hikari asked, astonished.

"Erm, entering the contest…what else?"

"Oh, right," Hikari laughed. She really didn't care who had come up to her, she just wanted some company.

"So, where are your travel buddies?" he said, looking around.

"Ah, they're not here."

"You're traveling alone?" Hikari blushed. She wasn't sure if it was wise to tell Kengo that she had been traveling with someone else that her friends weren't too fond of from the beginning, let alone a boy she hardly knew. But, I suppose that's how she started out with Satoshi and Takeshi, right?

"Well, I was traveling with someone else for a while."

"How come?" Geez Kengo, how nosy can you get?

"Um, he wanted me to help him with his coordinating."

Kengo frowned. "Who is that?"

"Someone you don't know," Hikari said quickly, face turning steadily pinker.

Kengo looked almost sullen for a moment, but then came back with a smirk.

"Well, I can't say that I'm happy about it, but at least you're happy, Pikari. And this gives me one more thing to pick on you about," he teased.

"Wh-wha-?" Hikari stammered.

"So, who's the lucky guy?" Kengo smirked.

"Wha? But…hey! I never even said it was a guy!"

Kengo laughed. "I can just tell these things, Pikari. It's written all over your face!"

Hikari blushed even darker than she had before.

"So come on, what's his name?"

"I-I'm not t-telling you!" Kengo sat down next to Hikari and laughed.

Kengo's face slowly grew grim. "So who's this guy? Your boyfriend or something?"

Hikari whirled around finding Shinji towering behind her. He was wearing black tuxedo pants and a white shirt, but it seemed as though he had left the jacket off. Typical Shinji. He had even donned his feet with the appropriate footwear; not his regular blue walking shoes, but simple black dress shoes to match the rest of the ensemble perfectly. It was as if he was dressy, but at the same time…not dressy.

"What are you staring at, stupid girl?"

Hikari flushed again. "A-ah, nothing, just…why is your tie like that?" It was true; he had his tie hanging loosely around his neck, far from being tied properly. "W…wait…" Hikari giggled. "Can you even tie a tie?"

Shinji scowled. "So what if I can't? It's stupid anyway." He quickly removed his tie, stuffing it into his pocket. Hikari actually liked him better this way…but maybe that was because it had been distracting her from his shirt which had been left open a few buttons down. Whatever the case, Hikari felt that the judges would appreciate him more if he was to wear the tie.

She swiftly stood up and snatched the tie limply hanging out of his pocket, slipping it around his neck. Her hands nimbly tied the clothing article in record time.

"…What did you have to do that for?" Shinji groaned, pulling on the tie which he found to be uncomfortable.

"Because, I think it would be more appealing to the judges if you wore a tie. You're already pretty underdressed as it is…"

"What do I care? It's the stupid pokemon that they're supposed to care about, right?"

"Augh, you're impossible!"

Kengo's laughter erupted from behind the two. "Oh wow…is this the guy you told me about, Pikari? You two sound like an old married couple!" He fell on the ground, rolling.

Hikari's face turned red from both frustration and embarrassment. "K-Kengo! Knock it off! It's not like that!" Kengo howled all the more.

"Ha, Pikari, you should see your face right now!" Hikari scowled.

Shinji, on the other hand, was smirking suspiciously. "You think this is funny?!" Hikari shrieked.

Shinji chuckled. "Yes, as a matter of fact I do, _Pikari_."

Hikari grew utterly silent. Kengo had literally ruined her life for the rest of eternity. Shinji knew her awful nickname, Kengo knew she liked him, and to top it all off, she was pretty sure that Shinji knew by the hints Kengo had carelessly thrown into the open.

"E-excuse me, Shinji," Hikari struggled to say, twitching in rage, "but would you please excuse Kengo and I? I'd like to have a word with him for a moment." Without waiting for a response, Hikari grabbed Kengo's wrist and dragged the hysterical figure somewhere where they were out of earshot.

"KENGO!" she screamed in anguish. "WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

Kengo sat up quickly. "Hm? What do you mean?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT DO I MEAN?" Hikari cleared her throat, deciding to reduce her volume. "I mean, why did you have to say all of that in front of Shinji?"

Kengo frowned. "Say what? You mean all that about being like a married couple?"

"Yes, and now he knows my nickname as well! He's going to hold that against me forever!"

"Heh, Pika-erm, Hikari…what exactly do you think of Shinji?"

"Wh-wha-? What do I think of…Shinji?" Hikari blushed. "Well, he's really a cold-hearted jerk…but he CAN be really sweet sometimes…when he wants to be." She smiled softly.

"Hee hee, looks like our Pikari's fallen in love!"

"WHAT?! Kengo!" Hikari whined.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone," Kengo said seriously. "I think…I'm okay with helping you from the sidelines. I…I want your happiness more than anything, Hikari." He leaned close to Hikari and kissed her forehead softly.

"What? Kengo, what do you mean? Are you okay?" she said, confused.

"Heh, dense as ever," Kengo chuckled as he walked away.

"And what was that about?"

Hikari whipped around. "WHAT?! Shinji, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING THERE? HOW MUCH DID YOU HEAR?"

"Nothing really, just that last bit." He scowled. "So, that your boyfriend or something?"

"No, just a childhood friend. Is that okay with you, your majesty?" Hikari bowed sarcastically.

Shinji huffed. "I came to tell you that I have to go; they're on #32 and I happen to be #37. See you." He stormed away.

"What's got him worked up into such a tizzy?" Hikari wondered aloud. "I wonder if it has something to do with Kengo…well, in any case, the least I can do is go watch his performance live for him."


	9. Chapter 9

"Shinji

I'd like to thank aeneid for helping me with Shinji's combinations! Thank you so much! 3

/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\

Hikari was in awe. She had never imagined that Shinji could be such a great coordinator. I mean, this was SHINJI we were talking about, right?

"Torterra, use Earthquake!" Torterra released a loud roar as it stamped the stage, breaking it up in the process. "Now, use Leaf Storm!" A tower of leaves shot up above the crumbled stage, swirling and dancing among the destruction. Shinji smirked, ready for his final command.

"Frenzy Plant!"

Torterra began to glow. He stamped the ground once again, and then stopped. The only audible sounds were the rustling of the leaves still dashing around in the air and a low rumbling, slowly getting louder…

Suddenly, large roots shot up from beneath the stage, crushing the boulders created from the earthquake and scattering the leaves out into the audience.

The flustered audience, still a little shaken up from the Earthquake attack, was silent for a moment, before slowly beginning to applaud at Shinji's…well…bruteful, performance. The applause grew into an uproar, and the judges began their critiques.

"How creative! I've never seen combinations that are so forceful, but yet so beautiful at the same time!"

"A fantastic display of brute strength and majesty all rolled into one!"

"Yes, remarkable!"

Shinji returned his Torterra and gave a quick bow before leaving the stage area to be replaced by large Rhydons compacting the stage back into its former shape.

Hikari leapt up and jogged over to the backstage exit to wait for Shinji. Shinji didn't make it one step out the door before getting a nice, big, glomp.

"Shinji! I can't believe how well you did! I mean, you're not really the coordinator type to begin with, but you went out there and did great! That's probably one of the best-"

"Okay, noisy girl, I get it. I'm wonderful. Now would you please let me breathe?" Hikari quickly loosened her grip on Shinji and stepped back. He wore his usual scowl.

She blushed, realizing who she had just hugged. She made a mental note to watch it next time to avoid any further embarrassment.

Shinji sighed. "If you don't have anything else to say, baka, then I'm going to go see my score." Shinji began to walk away, leaving Hikari alone to wallow in her humiliation.

"Agh, Hikari-chan, why are you so wrapped up in this? It's really not that big of a deal, and he didn't even seem to notice…" Hikari mumbled to herself. She decided it was best to forget about it and follow Shinji to see his score as well.

She made her way through the small groups of people down the hallways and lobbies into the main lobby showing the scoring results. Shinji stood impatiently waiting as page after page of contestant's names were going by. She walked over and stood beside him. His eyes quickly averted from the screen to her, then back to the screen.

"What do you want?" he sneered.

"I want to see your score," she huffed. "Is that okay with you, Your Rudeness?" Shinji grunted in response and directed all of his attention back to the lists of scores going by.

Finally, Shinji's face and name came up. "Oh my gosh, Shinji! You got a 28.6!" He glared over at her. "…out of 30…" she added awkwardly.

"I know that," he snapped.

"Well…that's really good!"

"Hmph. Says you."

"What's the problem? You can't tell me you were expecting a perfect 30!" she gasped.

Shinji smirked. "Are you expecting anything less of yourself?"

Hikari thought for a moment. Sure, she would have loved to get a 30, but it seemed so impossible that there was no way…

"Well, maybe you losers think that 28 is good enough, but I expect nothing less than perfection," he scoffed. "…from me, and my pokemon…" he added. He stormed off, leaving Hikari dumbfounded.

"Wh…what the heck is his problem?!" she screeched. "I congratulate him and all he does is freak out! Why I oughtta…" Hikari preceded to mumble threats under her breath to herself as she stomped down the empty hallway in the opposite direction.

She made her way back to the dressing room, hoping it was a little less crowded now that most everyone was ready. She reluctantly opened the door, and to her surprise, it was quite empty. She figured everyone was watching the others' coordinations. With a sigh, she sat down on a vacant stool and looked at herself in the mirror.

A stubborn piece of hair had fallen out of her ponytail. She went to find her bag to find a hairpin, but found it extremely difficult in all the disaster that had befallen the large room. There were bags and cans of hairspray everywhere. Glitter sat motionless on the concrete floor and the smell of hairspray and gel still hung loosely in the air around her. She jogged over to the section of the room she thought she had left her bag in and, not seeing it, started frantically digging for it. Horrifying thoughts of some evil girl coming in and stealing her precious bag drifted into her mind.

Suddenly, she bumped into someone's legs. She looked up to find the culprit holding her bag above her.

"Nozomi!" She smiled.

"Hey, Hikari, I found this on the floor and saw that you were looking for it, so I figured I would bring it to you," she said, handing the bag down to her. Hikari gleefully grabbed it and stood back up.

"Thanks, Nozomi! But…what are you doing in here?" asked Hikari. "Why aren't you out watching the contest with everyone else?"

"I could ask you the same thing, you know," Nozomi knowingly smirked.

Why was it that Nozomi could always see right through her?

"There's nothing wrong, if that's what you're thinking," Hikari said quickly, sitting back down on her stool.

"Hikari," Nozomi started, laughing, "denying it only makes it more obvious with you. Is this about that guy, um…Shinji, I think it was?"

Hikari's face flushed. "No," she mumbled quietly. "It was his fault, he's the one who started yelling at me!"

Nozomi smiled. "Hikari, I think he likes you more than you think."

Hikari whipped around. "What does that have to do with anything?!"

"I'm saying that I think he was embarrassed that he didn't do perfectly, so he got angry at you without thinking." Shinji, embarrassed? In what century?

Nozomi pulled the stubborn lock up and swiftly placed a small hairpin down around it. "But…what if he doesn't like me?" Hikari said sadly.

"I'm sure that you don't have to worry about anything," Nozomi said reassuringly.

"Well…he did act kind of funny when I was talking to Kengo," Hikari said thoughtfully. "Like he started getting all mad and stuff."

Nozomi's eyes widened. "Hikari, do you know what this means?"

"No…what?"

"It means that Shinji was jealous of Kengo!" Hikari's eyes widened as well. Could it really be true? Were these tiny things really signs from Shinji of his true feelings for her?

Nozomi sprayed a bit of hairspray for security, then left the dressing room to join the many others that had gone out to watch the contest. Hikari, sitting for a few more minutes, also got up and left the room. Her slow pace soon quickened, turning into a brisk walk, a light jog, and then finally she went sprinting down the hallway. She didn't have any clue why, but she felt like she had a sudden abundance of energy.

Her running halted abruptly when she crashed headfirst into something and fell to the ground painfully. Head throbbing, she sat up and came face to face with the boy she had just been thinking about.

Hikari suddenly squealed, then clasped her hands over her mouth.

"Troublesome girl, why the heck did you smash into me like that?" Shinji demanded.

For some reason, Hikari found herself frozen. Without thinking, she got up and continued her run down the long hallway, leaving a very confused Shinji on the floor behind her.

She didn't understand. She had never acted nor felt like this before…why now? She chocked it up to her feelings for Shinji.

Hikari slowed to a stop and sat on a random chair placed in a lobby-like area. Another large television was placed in this section of the building as well and many other coordinators sat gathered around it. Hikari began to watch as well, and before she knew it, it was almost her turn.

Lost in her thought, Hikari bumped into at least three other people before finally making it backstage.

_Well, this is it, _she thought.


	10. Chapter 10

"Shinji

"Ambipom, use Double Team!"

The two-tailed pokemon created a small circle of itself on the large stage and then leapt back into the air, away from the group.

"Good, now use Swift!" The pokemon obeyed once again, sending a flurry of large stars toward the tiny circle, and then jumping on top of one of them.

"Wait for it…wait for it…" Ambipom eventually traveled into the exact middle of the circle.

"Now! Use Focus Punch!" Its two tails started to glow and Ambipom began to spin. The Focus Punch attack beautifully took out the other Ambipoms, and the original jumped off its star back to the stage, creating a beautiful landing.

The crowd went wild. The judges were highly impressed.

"Wow, so creative! I've never seen such a combination of moves before!"

"This was wonderful! I loved how you used Ambipom's Focus Punch attack while on the star; very impressive!"

"Yes, remarkable!"

Hikari's heart pumped furiously. Never before had she participated in such a large contest before. She was worried that she wouldn't do well with all the other participants. After all, only 20 out of all those who entered would go on to the next round.

But, more importantly, had Shinji seen? What did he think of her routine? Would he scold her for not executing it properly?

Wait a minute; what was she thinking?! _She_ was supposed to be the coordinator, right? Why was she so absorbed in Shinji's opinion?

She tried to clear her mind as she walked quickly offstage. She made her way to the score room close by to see how she had done. She watched the listings go by for a few "pages" before finally making it to her name.

"Hikari and Ambipom: 27.9. Wow, that's fantastic, Hikari!" Nozomi and Haruka happily walked over to their friend.

"Hikari, I can't believe how well you did!" Haruka ran over to Hikari and swiftly hugged her.

"Ah, thanks, Haruka," Hikari said, embarrassed, "but it's really not that good."

Nozomi smiled mischievously. "Upset that Shinji got a better score than we did, are we?"

Haruka released Hikari. "What's this now?" She smirked evilly.

"N-Nozomi!" Hikari shrieked, blushing.

Satoshi and Takeshi also walked into the room and followed suit.

"So what are we talking about in here?" Takeshi said playfully, easily gathering correct conclusions.

"Yeah, guys, what's going on?" Satoshi asked innocently. He never was a bright one.

"Oh, Satoshi, Takeshi, you made it!" Hikari squealed, happy to change the subject. "Did you see my performance?"

"Yeah, it was awesome!" Thank you, Satoshi, and your wide range of vocabulary usage.

Hikari began to feel a little more comfortable again now that the conversation had been directed away from Shinji and her "relationship," if you could call it that.

"Hmph. Suppose that will suffice, stupid girl."

Strike that.

"Hey, it's Shinji!" Yes, thank you once again, Satoshi.

"Hey, Shinji, I don't think we got to see your score. How did you do?" Takeshi said warmly.

Shinji glared at the lot of them and scoffed. "None of your business," he sneered before sulking out of the room.

"Honestly, Hikari, I can't understand why you like him," Nozomi said wondrously.

"You said it," Haruka agreed.

Hikari sighed. She supposed that it was no use; it was apparently unavoidably obvious that she liked Shinji. It seemed that everyone had figured it out already.

"What are you guys talking about?"

Well, almost everyone…

"Satoshi, how could you not…? I mean…oh, forget it," Takeshi groaned. There was just no getting through his thick head.

"Well, come on, girly, go talk to him already!" Nozomi playfully encouraged.

"Wh-what? About what?"

"Well…ask him what he thought of your moves out there," Takeshi suggested.

"I…I guess so."

"Go for it, Hikari! We're rooting for you!" Haruka encouraged excitedly.

Hikari lightheartedly bounced out of the room in search of Shinji. She had Butterfries in her stomach working their way up her throat, but she set that aside and worked up all the courage she had.

She eventually found him coolly leaning against a random wall in a secluded hallway.

"Ah, Sh-Shinji?" He looked over at her.

"What?"

"W-well, I was w-wondering…what…you thought of…mmblemble…" Hikari's words became more muddled and soft the closer she got to the point of the sentence.

"What? I can't understand you," Shinji said impatiently.

"Ah, sorry, I…I was wondering…I guess I just wanted to know what you thought of my coordination," she said quickly.

Shinji was silent for a moment, as if trying to find the right words to use.

"It was fine."

Was that really all? What did that mean? Coming from Shinji, the usually straightforward one, it could mean that she was mediocre seeing as he would fully insult her if he hated it. On the other hand, it could also mean that he really liked it seeing as how he never fully complimented anyone. Hikari's mind was in even more turmoil than before she had spoken to him.

"Well, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Hm?"

"Did you like it or not?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Come on, that 'it was fine' comment didn't really say anything! Be more specific!" Hikari was quickly growing impatient with the stubborn trainer.

"What do you care?" he snapped. "What does it matter to you what I think? Why don't you just leave me alone?" He began to storm off. "They have some big announcement after the preliminaries, so why don't you hurry up and get to the auditorium already?" He stomped down the hallway toward the audience entrance of the auditorium.

A very angry Hikari went out of her way to avoid the previously mentioned boy on her way to the same area. It took her five minutes longer than it probably should have, but she eventually made it to her destination. She entered the large double doors and found an empty seat at the end of a row in the packed auditorium.

It was the last contestant. He had a Rattata that messed up halfway through its performance. Poor kid.

Finally, the hostess came onstage. "Alright everyone, it's time for the grand announcement! We have a big surprise for everyone about the next round!"

The crowd applauded. Hikari spied Shinji a few rows in front of her sourly sitting between to highly enthusiastic people. She smiled evilly in thought of his mental anguish at that moment.

The applause eventually died down and the hostess regained control of the contest once again. A large television screen was lowered down behind her. "First, we're going to announce the winners of the prelims!"

The crowd cheered again, and the 20 faces appeared on the screen before them. Hikari quickly scanned through the different pictures, trying to find her own. She unhappily saw Shinji's face there, still feeling bitter about their little squabble.

And there, on the bottom row, second to last, was Hikari. It took everything she had not to stand up and yell in excitement. After the crowd settled down once again, the hostess gleefully proclaimed, "The next announcement is…the second round will consist of a tag team battle!"

Some people groaned. One in particular stood up and yelled, "Hey, why weren't we told this sooner?!" A lot of people shouted in agreement.

"You see, we wanted to see how easily you all would adapt to another person and their pokemon. Part of being a coordinator includes being able to work with your pokemon and others that may be new or foreign to you. Plus, we thought it would be fun!"

Hikari actually agreed with her final statement; she thought it might be fun as well.

"Okay, now our computer will randomly match up each contestant!" The faces were randomly tossed around the screen, each settling into a new position connected to another next to it. To Hikari's horror, her face landed right next to…

"WHAT?! That purple-haired cold-faced JERK?!" she shrieked, flying out of her seat into the aisle way next to her. Those around her looked up at her strange outburst, and she embarrassedly sat down.

Now what was she going to do?


	11. Chapter 11

"Shinji

NOTE: Yes, I'm aware that she had to trade Buizel for Aipom in order to get Ambipom…but I like the Hikari + Buizel team a lot xD I really hated it when she gave him away like that D: But at the same time, I also like Hikari and Aipom/Ambipom xDD Just pretend that this is a little fantasy world…

Enjoy!

/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\/0\

Hikari sulked down the hallway once again. Man, had she gone through a complete rainbow of emotions in this building or what?

She found her usual chair in the general public area and plopped down with a sigh. How could she and Shinji possibly begin to cooperate on something like a tag battle?

She heard some low shuffling behind her, and she whirled around to see the culprit. Shinji stood sourly before her, hands in his pockets.

A few moments went by before Hikari decided to try and figure out what purpose he had for randomly showing up here after their little spat.

"…What?"

"Hn?"

"Well, what do you want? You obviously want something; why else would you be standing here?"

"I guess…I thought…murmurmurmur…"

"What?"

"I _thought_ that we should train together or something. We're in the second to last match, remember? That means that we should hurry up and try to…you know."

"…You mean, _work together_?" Hikari was getting a kick out of making Shinji admit he needed her to win the match.

"Yeah, whatever." Shinji scowled. He really hated admitting that he would need her. He usually worked best (in his opinion) in solitude. Why did they have to have this stupid tag battle thing, anyway? And he was teamed up with her, to top it all off.

Hikari stood up and followed Shinji to a small courtyard outside. A few other teams were practicing as well. Seeing this, Hikari pitied the first match up. They had no time to practice at all.

"Alright, hurry up and stop daydreaming and release your pokemon. We haven't got all day."

"Oh, right!" Hikari quickly released Buizel _(A/N: Yes, major plothole time! xD)_. Shinji released Magmar.

Hikari looked puzzled. "Erm, Shinji, I thought that you were going to use Electabuzz…weren't you?"

Shinji looked at Hikari as if she was a complete idiot. "I'm going to use him for my final round," he said bluntly.

"Oh." Hikari looked down at the ground, feeling silly for assuming what pokemon he was going to use.

They trained for quite some time, fairly quietly (for once). Hikari was still feeling a little steamed at Shinji, and Shinji…well, no one really knows what Shinji is thinking.

Eventually, it came upon that time that they had to get back to the stage. They quietly stood backstage, waiting to be called upon.

Hikari looked at Shinji's face. He looked very serious…so really, the same as usual. He had barely spoken to Hikari, and she wondered if he was still angry with her.

"Sh…Shinji?" Hikari said quietly.

He whipped his head around and looked over at her expectantly. "What?" he demanded.

"Eh…um, I was…I was just wondering…what are you thinking about right now?" Shinji gave her a disgruntled look. "Oh, I meant in the sense of…are you nervous? Do you think that we'll do well?"

Shinji gave no answer; he just turned back around to the stage. After what seemed like ages, the other match finally ended. A team of girls with a Torchick and a Jigglypuff just barely won (their use of looks and cuteness was what pulled them through). Hikari and Shinji's match up was announced.

"Let's go," Shinji commanded. Hikari, frozen with anxiety, stood still. Shinji groaned firmly grabbed her wrist and proceeded to drag her onstage.

"Ack, Shinji! What are you doing?"

"Stupid girl, we can't wait around all day!"

"But…but this is embarrassing!"

"You should have thought of that before standing there like an idiot." He seemed to be almost enjoying himself. Once again, it was usually hard to tell with Shinji.

The audience, of course, found the sight to be highly entertaining. Seeing an angry boy stomping out onstage, dragging a girl in a frilly pink dress _(A/N: I don't honestly know what she's wearing right now in the series, nor do I care xD I like her in pink…)_ behind him was quite a laugh. The audience gave a few chuckles, and some people were even whispering about a lovers' quarrel or a bickering couple. A quick glare from Shinji silenced all of these things, however.

Hikari had never been so embarrassed in her entire life. Her face was redder than the tie on Shinji's suit; and it had to be some kind of shade of maroon.

"Shinji…" she growled. "When this is over, I'm going to-"

"Shh," he said sharply. She quickly silenced.

Their opponents were two boys. They took the honor of going first.

"Go, Shinx!"

"Alright, let's go, Staraptor!"

The small electric pokemon and its birdlike partner appeared in a beautiful entrance of sparks and stars.

"Standby, Magmar!"

"Buizel, spotlight!"

The second set of pokemon appeared only in a cloud of bubbles.

"Shinji! You still haven't put a seal on your pokeball?!" Hikari shrieked.

"Hmph. It's unneeded."

"Argh! I swear, you're impossible!"

Their opponents became confused. "Shirai, we haven't even started battling and they're already bickering!" the first short, blue-haired one commented.

"Yeah, this should be easy, Takahiro," the second spiky, brown-haired Shirai smirked.

"Would you stop yelling at me already? I have to concentrate!" Shinji snarled.

"Alright, Staraptor, let's start with Whirlwind!" the one named Takahiro yelled excitedly. The large bird created a mini-cyclone aimed at the other pair's fighters.

"Shinx, Thunderbolt!" A humungous lightning bolt appeared forth from the small pokemon and wrapped around the tornado.

"_Oh my, what a beautiful combination of attacks!"_ Shinji and Hikari's points dropped slightly.

"Okay, let's go! Buizel, use Ice Beam to stop the tornado!" Buizel obeyed; however, Shinji had other plans.

"Magmar, use Flamethrower!" A long stream of fire blasted out of Magmar's mouth, melting Buizel's ice attack and holding the tornado back momentarily. This didn't last forever, unfortunately, as when Magmar's attack stopped, and then they had a flaming-lightning-tornado coming for them. They both jumped out of the way (just barely).

"Shinji! Why did you do that?!" Hikari screamed. "You just about toasted our own pokemon!"

"Because, you idiot, if you would have used that ice attack, it would have shattered upon impact with the Whirlwind, and then large chunks of ice would be flung toward them instead!"

"No, it would have been shattered, but into little shards that would catch the light just perfectly, thus making us look better!"

The audience was stumped. They couldn't understand how such a simple move could cause so much unease between two people.

Of course, Shinji and Hikari's points dropped once again. They were now down about one fourth of their circle, and things weren't looking good for them.

"You see what you did?! You just cost us more points!"

"What? You think this is my fault?!"

"Um…guys? Are we going to battle, or what?" Shirai asked shakily.

"Wha-? Oh, right! Sorry!" Hikari said happily, as if nothing had happened. "Buizel, use Water Jet!"

"Magmar, use Fire Blast!"

Buizel began use of its powerful water attack, but was forced to stop midway as Shinji's Fire Blast flew by and hit the opposing team. The other team lost some points for not looking so good, but they were still way in the lead, as Hikari and Shinji lost yet more points.

"Shinji! I…I can't even comprehend…HOW could you POSSIBLY think that was a good idea?!"

"Because your wimpy attack never would have done anything."

"Shinji, this is an appeal match! It's not a gym battle!" Hikari said, exasperated. "You can't just concentrate on doing damage! You have to make you pokemon look good at the same time!"

Shinji made no reply as he processed this information. "I know that," he snapped. She was right; he had forgotten to put how his pokemon would look in that last move.

"Hehe, you guys aren't looking so hot!" Takahiro nastily commented. "You don't have any teamwork! How do you expect to win that way?"

"Takahiro, I think that you should stop," Shirai said shakily, "you're being extremely rude."

"Feh, what does it matter, as long as we win?" Takahiro said excitedly.

Hikari looked down. Shinji looked over at her, noticing her depressed composure. He sighed, not wanting to do anything about it, but she couldn't very well battle in that condition.

"What is it?"

"Hm?" Hikari looked up, a tear forming in her eye. She had never been so embarrassed in her life as she had been that day. It was starting to get to her.

"What the heck is wrong with you?"

"It's just…I don't think we can do this. All we do is fight. I think…maybe we should just give up."

Shinji groaned. He was never one for encouraging speeches, but he had to find some way to put that raging confidence she usually had back into her head. But how?

"Ugh…well, I guess…ack, stupid girl. Why do you have to make everything so difficult?"

Hikari wiped the tear out of her eye. "Huh?"

"We have to…I mean, let's…_work together._" Shinji said the last two words with such disgust that it seemed as if a nearby listener would think that he had just gotten a firsthand whiff of a fully developed Gloom.

"R-really?" Hikari sniffed.

"I'm not saying that we have to actually get along, I just mean that we have to…you know…in order to win this. Plus," he added, "I think those two's 'teamwork' may be on the rocks." They looked over to find the other two having their own mini-quarrel of sorts.

"Okay…let's try it! Thanks, Shinji!" Much to Shinji's discomfort, Hikari swiftly grabbed his hand. "Let's work as a team!"

"Aww, did the lovers make up?" Takahiro laughed. Shinji scowled in disgust. Hikari just giggled. She was happy that Shinji was finally willing to work with her to win this.

"Shinx, use Spark!"

"Staraptor, Agility!" Shinx jumped upon Staraptor's back and began to charge up with electricity.

"_Ah, it seems as though Shinx is using Staraptor's speed and its power at the same time! And look, it seems as though the electricity around them is almost protecting Staraptor! Beautiful!" _Shinji and Hikari's points slowly dropped once again. However, this time would be different.

"Buizel, dodge it!"

"Magmar, dodge it!" The two had even begun to say their commands in harmony.

The other pair swept clean between them, but Shinx's Spark attack still created a huge amount of electricity with nowhere to go. The attack, with no outlet, caused Shinx and Staraptor engulf themselves in electricity, causing damage.

"_Uh-oh, it seems as though the attack only hurt themselves! That's not looking too good for Shirai and Takahiro!" _For the first time in that appeal, the other team's points dropped greatly.

"Oh, real smooth, Shirai! Why didn't you find some way to make the Spark attack work out in our favor?" Takahiro snapped.

"What was I supposed to do, Takahiro?" Shirai yelled back.

"Buizel, use Water Jet!"

"Magmar, Fire Spin!" Buizel sped toward the other team surrounded by water, a tiny ring of fire slowly encircling it. The other team's points dropped yet again.

"_Okay, everyone, time up!"_ Buizel, unable to stop itself, hit the other pokemon anyway, causing a lot of damage and sending up a huge spray of water and steam.

"Shoot, if only we had another couple of seconds…" Shinji swore under his breath.

"Let's take a look at the scores!" the hostess said, walking back out on stage. "And the winners are…"


	12. Chapter 12

"Shinji

"And the winners are…"

The entire audience sat in anticipation and the two sets of contenders stood with bated breath. Everyone anxiously awaited the announcement of the winning team in this extremely close battle.

"…the...'interesting' team of Shinji and Hikari and their Magmar and Buizel!"

The crowd roared.

"Dang it!" Takahiro snarled. He proceeded to storm offstage in rage. His partner, Shirai, looked almost relieved to be free of his forced teammate. He almost skipped offstage, completely relieved of all pressure.

"Yippie! We did it, Shinji!" Hikari, in all her excitement, may have very well ceased in all control of her body. Before she had even knew what was happening, she had placed a small peck on Shinji's right cheek.

Hikari's eyes widened as she pulled away, fully realizing what she had just done. Shinji stared at her as if she had just given him the Black Plague. Luckily for her, no one had noticed in all the commotion except for the two participants of the embarrassing display.

She quickly ran offstage in an attempt to escape Shinji's coldhearted yells or, even worse, his questions. He had to have noticed that there was something going on with her lately…no one was _that_ dense. Well…let's just not count Satoshi at the moment.

She came around a corner and fell to her knees, completely out of breath. Why did she always just run every time she got embarrassed? What did it accomplish?

Hikari slowly stood back up, breathing finally slowing. She quickly peeked around the corner. Nope, all clear; no Shinji in sight. Breathing a large sigh of relief, she turned back around and ended up nose to nose with…who else?

"Wha?! Sh-Shinji, how did…I just…where did you come from?!" she sputtered.

"You know, this is a large building. There are other ways to get here other than the route you chose, you know," he snapped. "And," he added, "this is a fanfiction. That means that anything can happen; basically the writer can do whatever she wants. How else do you explain having Ambipom and Buizel at the same time?"

"Oh…I guess you're right," she said nervously. "Well, I guess I'll just be going now…" Before Hikari could dash out of sight once again, Shinji's hand slammed onto the wall next to her. She turned back around to face Shinji.

His eyes were as cold and unfeeling as they always were. Shinji…he was impossible to read.

"Not so fast," he murmured quietly. "What was with what happened back there?"

"Ah…um…it was nothing?" Hikari never was one to come up with good excuses.

Shinji chuckled softly. "I've seen you hug others before, and I've even seen you kiss someone on the cheek like that in your excitement." It was true; once before she had kissed Satoshi on the cheek like that after coming through an extremely tough gym battle. Of course, this never meant much except a simple, "Congratulations!"

"However," he continued. Hikari gulped. "The way you reacted to it…it wasn't as if it seemed like 'nothing' to you." Shinji slowly leaned in closer. Hikari couldn't help but notice how…nice he looked dressed up like that. Her heart started racing. Her face was burning, and she knew how painfully obvious it was that she was blushing.

"Why is that?" Shinji smirked. He had her backed into a corner and he knew it. It was only a matter of time until he got her to blab.

"I…ah, um…" Hikari's words were slowly turned to mush. Shinji was so close that she could feel his hot breath on her face. What was he trying to do? How did he feel about this? She wanted to ask him these things and throw it back at him, but she was so nervous she was surprised she hadn't collapsed onto the floor as a puddle of mush yet.

Then—whether by accident or on purpose, Hikari didn't know—Shinji's lips quickly brushed hers. Not an actual kiss, but lip to lip contact nonetheless.

"Hikari, what are you feeling?" His face was completely serious. Wha…what?! Did he just say…Hikari? Did he actually know her name?!

"Shin…ji…" Hikari softly closed her eyes. He…it was really true. He was going to kiss her. His nose touched hers once again, and just before his lips met hers…

Shinji pulled away and smirked. Hikari's eyes snapped open.

"I can't believe you fell for that," he said, almost laughing. "As if I would like some noisy girl like you!" Shinji walked away, smirk firmly planted on his face.

Hikari stood in the abandoned hallway alone, dumbfounded. "That…that…THAT JERK!" she shrieked. She should have known. That idiot never would have fallen in love with her, let alone admit and/or imply it. He was probably just trying to freak her out before the next round. Why else would he…?

She brought her fingers up and tenderly touched her lips where they had almost kissed. At this point, she wasn't sure if she should be thrilled that he had even done something that close to a kiss (even if it was probably faked) or if she should be rabid and ready to kill him because he was messing with her.

Nonetheless, she couldn't let this get to her. The 10 winners in the next few rounds would be bracketed so that the two finalists would battle each other for the grand prize _(A/N: I know that there would only be five participants on either side of the brackets. The extra one will be hooked onto the end and battle the winner of the final bottom match up. Then things will be evened out, so don't worry)_. She tried to put all aside during her next matches.

The battles all went rather poorly in Hikari's case; she just barely snaked through the first two. On the second battle, she did even more poorly than the first. She knew that she couldn't let Shinji get to her, but…

Well, she did, in fact, make it to the final round. She knew that in this battle, she couldn't let her guard down. She couldn't use careless moves and stop paying attention midway in battle. She walked out on stage poised and confident, ready to take on anyone who came her way. However, she never expected what was to come next.

"So, troublesome, you made it to the final match, did you?"


	13. Chapter 13

"Shinji

Hikari's eyes widened and her head snapped up. She once again found herself stationed upon the stage with Shinji, whom was fast becoming a new rival of hers, even if temporary. However, this time they happened to be on opposite sides of the stage.

"Well, are you going to stand there and gawk all day, or are we going to battle?" he sneered.

For some reason, Hikari became filled with an uncontrollable rage. The memories of events in the past few hours all came rushing back to her at the same time, and she couldn't seem to stand it any more.

She let out a loud yell as she angrily released her Piplup. Shinji threw his pokeball with just as much force as she had, if not more. His Electabuzz was released in a large flash of light. He still hadn't placed a seal on his Pokeball.

"Argh, why do you have to be such a stubborn jerk all the time?!" Hikari shrieked. Shinji, for once, was actually caught off guard. He had never seen her this angry before, and that was really saying something.

"Electabuzz, use Thunder Punch!" Electabuzz turned to face his trainer, startled by the excessive anger in his voice, which, once again, is really saying something. Terrified even more by the cold, dark look in his eyes as he glared at the yellow pokemon, he quickly turned back around and obeyed.

"Piplup, dodge it!" The tiny penguin made a move to dodge the powerful attack, but failed. It was knocked backwards, causing Hikari's points to drop slightly.

"There you go again, trying to win with nothing but brute strength!"

"Excuse me, but who made it to the finals? To tell you the truth, I'm surprised you made it here. I saw your other matches, and you seemed a bit…distracted by something."

Hikari glared at him. "Oh, and whose fault would that be?" Shinji raised an eyebrow in ignorance.

"What are you babbling about, stupid girl?"

"Don't act like you don't know!" she screamed. It was one thing to do something that terrible just to distract her, but to deny it completely…?

"…And for the last time, my name is HIKARI!" She gave a loud command for Piplup to use Peck, but the pokemon became so petrified by its owner's newfound rage that it couldn't find the strength to move.

"Electabuzz, Thunder!" Piplup was hit once again, knocking Hikari's points down even more. Shinji's thunder attacks were creating amazing light shows, and that seemed to add to Hikari's slow loss of points. Finally, after only one or two more moves, Hikari had dropped completely down to only half of her starting points. She knew that she had to do something about her emotional stress, but it seemed that every time she looked across the stage at Shinji, all she wanted to do was drop to the ground and start crying.

"Piplup, try Bubblebeam!" The force in her voice had been completely lost by this point, and in that, her pokemon's attacks had lost theirs as well. Electabuzz quickly swatted away the shining bubbles with ease, creating a wall of sparkles and causing Hikari's points to drop ever more.

Hikari was almost in tears now. What was her problem? She had never gotten this emotional about anything before. Was she really so in love with Shinji that he was affecting her this much…? She slumped down onto her knees, ready for defeat.

Shinji's eyes narrowed as he looked over to his now pitiful opponent. He was quite disappointed as the battle was becoming dull. How could he fight someone with absolutely no spark? Even Shinji knew that if you had no will to battle, there would be no power behind your pokemon.

"Hey, stupid girl." Hikari slowly looked up, wiping a solitary tear from her eye. "Get up." She looked up at him, confused, before slowly standing up. "Well, are you going to just give up like that, or are you going to keep fighting?" Hikari's eyes widened. Even if Shinji had done something terrible, could it have actually been to…encourage her? Maybe to teach her to be stronger? It was a possibility; Shinji had been surprising her all over the place in the past few weeks, so anything was possible.

Hikari wiped her face quickly, and then gave an evil grin to her opponent. "Don't think I'll go easy on you!"

Shinji smirked. _This_ was the short-tempered girl he knew.

..._(A/N: If this border doesn't work, please tell me --")_

"You did pretty good, Hikari. I'm proud of you." Nozomi gave a playful punch to her rival.

"Yeah, I wish I could have gotten that far! I didn't win anything," Haruka said sheepishly.

"Aww, thanks, guys," Hikari said, holding her small, second-place trophy in front of her for her friends to see. Although she had given a great fight, it had just been too far into the battle for her to catch up with the purple-haired boy across the stage. She had received a Poketch application as a consolation prize, but it still would have been nicer to actually win.

Takeshi gave her a strong pat on the back, and Satoshi went on a long rant about how Shinji had probably done something to fix the match or abuse his pokemon for the win.

Shinji soon sulked by, holding his large first-place trophy and bag of prize money under his arm. Hikari just couldn't understand it. He had given her back her fighting spirit for an, "amusing," as he would put it, battle; WON the said battle; and gained the prize money he had opted for, but he was still his usual bitter self. She sighed. She would probably never understand that boy.

Being that they were standing on the stairs outside the building, there were people flooding out, talking about how great the contest was, even for an unofficial one. Hikari's eyes soon lost Shinji among the large crowd. She was saddened, knowing that that was possibly the last time she would see him for quite some time.

After spending some more time with her friends, she decided it was best for her to head back to the Pokemon Center. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she really hoped that Shinji would still be there, but she knew that was only a fantasy.

She, Takeshi, and Satoshi all trudged back in silence. Takeshi could feel that something was up, but somehow couldn't put his finger on what. It was easy to tell that you could have cut the tension with a knife.

When they finally arrived, Hikari silently went back to her room. As expected, Shinji wasn't there. She sadly slumped onto her bed. Before she knew it, she had slipped into a dreamless sleep.

...

Argh, I meant to write this about a week ago, but I was drawing and got distracted D:

Hopefully either the next chapter or the following will be the final one O:


	14. Chapter 14

"Hey, stupid girl!"

Hikari slowly sat up, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Nn…"

"Hey, wake up already! Are you dead, or what?" Hikari's eyes opened as her mind began to start up again. They focused, and a blurry figure came into view. Hey, he looked suspiciously like…

"Shinji?"

"Who else would it be?" Hikari sat up quickly to get a closer look. Sure enough, Shinji stood looming over her bedside, hands in his pockets.

"Wh…what are you doing here? I thought you left," she said incredulously.

"Che." Shinji merely huffed and gave no direct answer. The two sat in silence for a few moments before one of them spoke again.

"So…was there something that you needed?" Hikari asked impatiently.

"Hn." Once again, no answer.

"Well, if you're not going to answer me, then will you at least leave?"

"What's your problem? I can stand here if I please."

"But why are you by _my _bed?"

"…"

"Argh, you're so impossible!" Shinji smirked. This was the "troublesome" he knew.

"Well, I guess there _might_ have been something that I wanted to ask you."

"…"

"…"

"So…what is it?"

"…Why are you so annoying?" Hikari just about screamed. This conversation was absolutely pointless. It seemed like he had only come back to bug her.

"Shinji, why I oughtta…"

"Calm down, it was actually a serious question. I meant to ask you why you were acting so stupid back during that battle."

"What?! You of all people should know, you jerk!" Shinji gave her a puzzled look. "Don't play dumb; you're the one who caused everything!" Hikari's anger suddenly came flooding back to her. She stood up and turned the lamp on beside the bed.

"What are you babbling about?"

"I'm talking about that stunt you pulled before the semi finals!" Shinji was taken aback. She had gotten all worked up over that?

"Wh-what are you talking about, stupid girl? Why would you care so much about something like that?"

"Well, you can't just get all serious like that and then brush it off with, 'I can't believe you fell for that!'" Shinji was horrified. He had been positive that last statement would cover up the rest of it…why didn't she just forget about it?!

"I-I…ugh…" Shinji quickly turned away from her, bringing one hand up to shield his face from her. _Urgh…come on, suppress…go away…stupid…why does the d light have to be on?!_

"Shinji? What are you doing?" Hikari put her hand on his shoulder to turn him around, but to no avail. Frustrated, she grabbed his free arm (still in his pocket) and yanked him around. Unfortunately for Shinji, his arm came out of his pocket. Trying to avoid her getting a hold of his hand, he quickly yanked his arm up out of her reach, dropping his other, finally having caused his emotions to subside.

_His hand…it's still in a fist_, Hikari wondered. _There's something in it!_ Curiously, she grabbed his hand, trying to force it open. However, Hikari's strength was nothing to behold compared to that of Shinji, and the struggle became like that of a Butterfree trying to split a rock in half with its feet.

"What are you doing?" Shinji chuckled.

"Trying to see what's in your hand," she said bluntly.

"Doesn't look like you're doing so hot."

"Really?" She swiftly kicked Shinji in the leg, causing his hand to open in his moment of pain. She grabbed the small object out of his partially opened hand and jumped back. Shinji quickly stood up, still writhing, and limped out of the room as quickly as he could. _D it…I was hoping to mess with her a little while longer before that…_

Hikari stared at the door, and then at the small object she held in her hand. It was a little ball. Why had Shinji been trying so hard to hide this? Looking closer, she noticed that it was actually a Pokeball. She twirled it around between her fingers, wondering what pokemon could be inside. However, the biggest thought on her mind was that Shinji had just stormed off (sort of) without it. He wouldn't normally leave a pokemon behind like that, even if he wanted to release it. He would have formally done so if he had wanted to release a pokemon. So why leave it here?

She decided to investigate. After leaving the room and getting some funny looks, she embarrassedly turned back and decided to change out of her wrinkled contest dress.

THISISABORDER

Hikari walked through the park. How was she supposed to find Shinji now? She had absolutely no clue where he could have gone, but yet she had gone out to look for him anyway.

Just before she was about to turn back and find her friends, she happened to spot that familiar purple hair floating in a nearby tree. She jogged closer and heard some disgruntled mumbling coming from above her.

"Stupid…why'd you have to…probably figured it out…"

"_Figured it out"? Figured out what?_ she thought. She tiptoed a little closer in order to hear better. She came up right behind the tree and strained to listen.

"I _knew_ I should have found something better to cover with. What kind of idiot would be okay with 'I can't believe you fell for that!' And then of course I had to go and start blushing right there…argh, I've never been so embarrassed in all my life!" Hikari couldn't believe it. Shinji? Embarrassed? Maybe…had that whole situation…had he been serious?

"You just had to go and push it that time, didn't you? Nice going, Shinji. And then she had to find out about that Pokeball before you had a chance to say some witty comment and leave her speechless…" Hikari held back snickers. Shinji was actually embarrassed and upset over this whole thing! She did feel bad for eavesdropping, but she was actually pretty glad that she had, as well. If she hadn't, she was positive she never would have heard all that from him voluntarily.

"Shinji?" she said, deciding to make her presence known. "Shinji, what are you doing up there?" What? If she had told him that she had heard everything, he would have killed her!

Shinji looked down quickly, and upon seeing the pink-clad girl, scowled. "And what is it that you want?"

Hikari giggled. "I wanted to know what this little Pokeball was for." She held it up.

"It's for holding pokemon in. Don't you know anything?"

"_No_, I _meant_ why did you leave it with me?" Shinji was silent.

"Well, why don't you just take it already?!" he suddenly snarled. "What do you care what the reason is? Have you even looked to see what was inside yet, you stupid girl?"

Truthfully, she hadn't thought to even check and see what was inside. Realizing this, she enlarged the Pokeball and curiously released the pokemon inside.

"It…it's a Porygon!" she gasped. The little synthetic pokemon twirled around, happy with its new master. "But…why?" She looked up at Shinji to see that he had turned away. Suddenly, it dawned on her. Porygon couldn't be caught in the wild; they were man-made. They had to be won…or bought. And let me tell you, a pokemon that powerful and rare fetch a pretty price.

"Shinji…did you buy this for me?" she asked slyly. No answer yet again. She quickly returned her new pokemon and began climbing up the tree.

Hikari never had been much of a tree climber. As a little girl, she had never liked to overexert herself on outdoor activity, and so she had never learned how to climb trees. And thus, the girl standing before us today also could not climb trees.

And thus, the same girl fell from Shinji's tree.

Twice.

From the first branch.

Frustrated, Hikari sat at the bottom of the tree. She fiddled with her skirt for a while before looking up at Shinji again. He was still sitting on that same branch, looking out into the distance. She stood up once again, stubbornly deciding that she wouldn't lose to him.

She shakily climbed onto the first branch and steadied herself. So far, so good. She grabbed onto the next one cautiously; first one hand, and then the other. She pulled herself up with all her might, eventually sliding up onto the limb. She swung around so that she could stand up on the branch in order to grab the one above her. She continued this slow cycle, eventually speeding up and getting better as she went. She reached Shinji's branch in a few minutes and slid up onto it in front of him.

"There now, you can't ignore me up here." Shinji scowled and turned away. Hikari frowned. She grabbed onto his chin and forced him to face her. "Now what is your problem? Every time I try to ask you about the pokemon or the money…or anything, for that matter…all you do is ignore me! I JUST want to know why you did all this."

Shinji went to bring his hand up to his cheeks to shield his face from her once again, but Hikari grabbed it with a quickness Shinji wasn't expecting. Taken aback, he couldn't find his other hand in time to cover the very faint pink that was beginning to grace his cheeks. Try as he might, he couldn't seem to keep it from coming. For some reason, it was different when he was the one picking on her…

Hikari's eyes danced. She was FINALLY getting somewhere. At least she had a reaction from him, even if silent.

"So you really want to know why I gave you that so badly?" he snapped.

"Why yes, I do."

Shinji sighed loudly, then suddenly lunged forward, lips crushing onto Hikari's. Hikari just about fell out of the tree in shock, but Shinji slipped a hand around her waist, aiming to prevent that. He pulled away for a moment, then kissed her a couple more times, more quickly than the first.

Still keeping his hand around her for support (knowing how clumsy she could be, and also knowing she probably wouldn't survive a fall from that high up), Shinji pulled away. Hikari looked into his eyes. However, she still saw the same cold, dark eyes that she usually did.

"There, feel better?" he snarled quite loudly, probably trying to hide his embarrassment. A few people turned their heads and looked up at the two of them, cheerfully mumbling about young love. Shinji released his hold he had around her waist and jumped down from the tree, hopping from branch to branch. He eventually reached the ground and started to walk away.

"Hey, wait a second!" Hikari began to slowly crawl back down the tree. However, she hadn't had any practice climbing down the tree yet, and lost her footing on one of the branches. She started to fall. It luckily wasn't an overly tall tree, but she swore at Shinji in her mind for climbing up so close to the top. Just as she thought she would hit the ground, she found herself falling into something strong, yet soft.

She looked up and found herself staring into those same cold black eyes she had just been looking at moments before.

"Why do you have to be so clumsy?" He smirked. He let her down, but it seemed as if her leg had been whacked pretty good by one of the branches during her fall. He sighed and picked her back up again, ignoring her cries of protest at being embarrassed.

He silently carried her back to the Pokemon Center where he was sure her friends would be looking for her. Hikari eventually quieted down and started asking questions again.

"So, I can really keep it?"

"Yes."

"Is that why you entered the contest? To buy it for me?"

"…"

"Oh…hey, that magazine I saw…it was a pokemon one, wasn't it? Like for trainers?"

"…"

"So, how much did it cost?"

"None of your business."

"Hm…it couldn't have cost all of that money, could it?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Well…what are you going to do with the rest of it?" she assumed.

"I can have a little spending money for myself, can't I?" Hikari smiled. She was beginning to find his sarcasm a little…dare I say…charming, the more she talked to Shinji. Even if he was practically emotionless when he said it. And was insulting her half the time.

But ANYWAYS.

They eventually made it back to the lobby area, Shinji kicking the door open (causing more shrieks from Hikari about rudeness) in front of them. He walked over to the sitting area and plopped her down on the couch next to her friends who were sitting there waiting for her.

"Hikari? I thought that you were still in your room sleeping," Takeshi said curiously. "I knocked on your door, but you never answered…"

"I told you, Takeshi, she was kidnapped!" Satoshi cried. He suddenly stood up, glaring at Shinji. "What did you do to her?" he growled.

Shinji smirked, the obvious flag for disaster. "Well, you know, a little you-know-what, and a little of…" Satoshi lunged at Shinji, ready for a full frontal attack, but Takeshi leapt up to hold him back.

"Satoshi, he isn't serious! Calm down!" As Satoshi struggled to free himself from Takeshi's grasp, Hikari began to laugh. Satoshi stopped moving and looked down at her curiously.

"Hey, what are you laughing about?"

Hikari, calming herself, managed to giggle, "He didn't kidnap me, Satoshi."

"Huh? Then why was he carrying you like that?"

"Well…" she looked up at Shinji who gave her a warning glare. "Erm…I went out for a walk when I decided to climb a tree. I slipped and fell and hurt my leg, so Shinji carried me back. That's it." She gave a weak smile, hoping they would buy it. Luckily for her, Takeshi trusted her, and Satoshi wasn't all that bright, so they both believed her wholeheartedly.

"Can you walk?" Takeshi asked, concerned. Hikari stood up and limped around the room a bit before sitting back down.

"A little."

"Well, you can ride on my back if you want," Satoshi suggested.

"Yeah…" Hikari looked up at Shinji who seemed to be glaring at Satoshi as if he had just asked her to be his wife. "…But, I think I'm going to travel with Shinji."

The whole room echoed (even with Shinji) a loud, "What?!"

"Yup, that's right. You see, he scared me while I was in the tree, so my injury is his fault. I'm going to keep traveling with him until it heals," she said matter-of-factly.

Shinji gaped at her. "You can't be serious…"

"Well, you better believe it, because I definitely am," she said gleefully.

"Argh, whatever…"

Little did Shinji know what he was getting himself into…Hikari healed and kept traveling with him long afterward, eventually not even needing to make up excuses to stay. The rest…is history.

THISISABORDER

Okay, if you're wondering about the odd "borders," it's because I couldn't find a border that would cooperate with me --" I tried a line of periods, I tried underscores, I tried slashes, I tried that funny squiggly line thing, I tried everything…

But anyway, this is the long-awaited conclusion to my fanfic. I decided a couple weeks ago that it would be a great post for Ikarishipping Day (which is today, the 28th). So, yes, there was a reason for it being so late xD

Btw, that part about Hikari's past is made up by me xD

Well, the only thing left to say now is…

HAPPY IKARISHIPPING DAY

Make sure to check out my deviantART (srhthehedgehog./) if you'd like to see some fanart posted for Ikarishipping Day!


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